The Yukon Teacher’s Association says a teacher-on-call (TOC) shortage is disrupting every classroom in the Yukon, according to data from a recent survey.

“It’s showing us how 5,000 Yukon students are being deprived of quality, safe education,” Sue Ross, the association’s president, told the Star recently.

The teachers’ union ran three surveys, spaced out over the course of one school year. The last one closed earlier this month.

Each of the surveys had approximately 100 respondents from union members, for a total of 317 responses, Ross said.

According to Ross, teachers self-reported that they work an average of 2.5 days per year when they are sick.

The survey also found that Yukon classrooms go, on average, two weeks per school year without education assistance support. Education assistants aid students with special or medical needs, including learning and behavioural challenges.

Ross said education assistants are occasionally required to teach the entire class in the absence of a teacher or TOC, leaving students without the specialized help they require.

“It’s an even bigger problem in rural schools,” Ross said.

The survey found that in rural schools, students are taught or supervised by an education assistant for a cumulative two weeks every year.

“It shouldn’t be happening, but you need an adult body to supervise kids. If there isn’t a person available in the community, the Yukon government doesn’t close their schools.”

Ross added that high schools will also occasionally combine classes if a TOC or education assistant isn’t available.

For example, if a math and science teacher is away, students reporting to that teacher might instead join a class with the English and social studies teacher.

“I’m highly disappointed,” Ross said of the survey findings.

This is the second time in the span of two years that the union has decried the territory’s lack of TOCs.

In October 2018, the Star reported there was a roster of only 175 TOCs in the territory.

At the time, the union was advocating to bring TOCs under their representation and to raise their pay, as two mechanisms for attracting staff to the territory.

The union reached an agreement with the Yukon government in the early days of 2019 that brought TOCs into the union fold, with a condition that their employment conditions wouldn’t change for three years.

“We were between a rock and a hard place, we needed to get them in … but we couldn’t increase their pay or really any of the benefits,” Ross said.

Despite this, the TOC stock in the territory has nearly doubled since October 2018.

According to Maria Paré, a communications analyst at the Department of Education, there are currently 344 TOCs available in the Yukon. These include 237 in Whitehorse, and 107 in the communities.

The rise in TOC staffing has been gradual, with an additional 41 TOCs joining staff in 2019.

Paré told the Star in an emailed statement that the Yukon government has taken steps to “simplify administration, support new applicants and promote job opportunities.”

These steps include advertising TOC job opportunities, offering a paper-based application form for rural TOCs, helping schools improve process for reaching out to TOCs and developing a list of Whitehorse TOCs who are willing to work in rural communities.

Paré noted there is additional compensation for Whitehorse teachers who travel to communities to fill positions.

“Teachers on call are important to the success of our educational system and we value their support,” Paré said.

Ross said the teacher’s union is still advocating for a TOC pay raise, which she says is “well below” the Canadian average.

“We live in an expensive territory, and it’s a difficult job to do,” she said.

She added that improving pay rates, benefits and access to benefits might motivate TOCs to live in communities, lending better support to rural schools.

She noted that it’s “hard to make it” as a TOC in the communities unless you’re living with someone who works full-time.

“It’s definitely difficult to figure out a solution to the problem; it’s many-faceted,” Ross said.

In addition to improved pay rates, Ross hopes the Yukon government will continue to improve its call-out system to TOCs.

She said TOCs are sometimes booked in-person at schools, which hinders the fairness and transparency of the process.

Now that the union has gathered information via the survey, Ross said, she plans to present the information to the Department of Education.

“In terms of a collaborative problem-solving approach,” Ross said.

“See if we can’t motivate them to perhaps improve their call-out system a little bit, and make it more equitable and fair.”